Tracking the Tigers with MLB.com beat writer Jason Beck.

Second-guessing the [ex-]Tigers' offseason moves

Is it better to not make a move than to make a bad one? Well, that’s all up for opinion, and many have theirs.

Lost in some of Monday’s catching-up from the holiday was a Foxsports.com piece from Dayn Perry listing his picks for the five worst deals of the offseason. No, the Tigers’ decisions didn’t make the list, but three former Tigers did, including both of last year’s late-inning relievers turned free agents.

Brandon Lyon’s three-year, $15 million deal with the Astros from last month’s Winter Meetings topped Perry’s list. Perry goes so far as to call Lyon’s 2009 season “lucky” and chastise Houston for betting that he’ll stay lucky for the next three years. I wouldn’t agree with that, but with a three-year contract for a relief pitcher, you had to figure he was going to be on the list.

Right behind that was the Diamondbacks’ end of the trade for Edwin Jackson and Ian Kennedy, mainly for the fact that Jackson is arbitration-eligible and closer to free agency. Still, Perry gushes over new Tigers reliever Daniel Schlereth for “a dominating minor-league dossier and the makings of a shutdown reliever at the highest level.”

Both of those moves topped the Milton Bradley trade in Perry’s eyes. Fernando Rodney’s two-year, $11 million deal with the Angels ranked just beyond that in fourth. Perry cites Rodney’s declining strikeout rate and injury history. I’d suggest the strikeout rate was a small price to pay for better command, but that’s just me.

Share this:

Related

11 Comments

The Lions are bad, The Pistons, well, NBA, boring, The Wings are not scoring. I look forward to baseball. All these baseball players make so much money, Lyon, 15 mil for 3 years? Rodney, 11 mil for 2 years? It is all business. Well, it doesn’t cost that much to watch my big screen TV that I have had for 7 years. The old English D is still my favorite letter. I will root for the players on my team, even if they are only there for a year or two.

I read that article a few days ago. It appeared to me that Mr. Perry was a little too hung up on statistics and didn’t have the luxury of watching Brandon Lyon day in and day out as we did. What I saw was a guy who added an effective cutter which made his other pitches better, and he was the one guy I wanted to keep most, as I said many times. I wouldn’t have signed him for three years, but two years for $10M seemed reasonable. Unfortunately our 2010 payroll doesn’t even allow that much wriggle room. Rodney, to a lesser extent, the same. The stats didn’t tell the story on him either. He closed 37 of 38 and that’s the bottom line. Fernando was an effective big league closer in 2009. We all speculate that this was a fluke and maybe it was. That remains to be seen. Even Joe Nathan gets himself into trouble and gets out of it. Mariano Rivera is on another planet.
.
That said, I couldn’t guess which transactions were the worst unless I studied them all. I’ll do that just here in a minute…………..right after I finish building a wing on my house, going back to college and completing my NASA training as a space shuttle pilot.
.
I think our pitching might be okay as is. Might be. We do need that hitter though. Jason, what ever happened to Bobby Higginson? ;-)
.
–Rich

Hey, another season just around the corner and the wounds from last year have just about healed – on the surface anyway.
.
With absolutely no expectations placed on the team, JL should be in his element and Central will no doubt carry us further into the season than we will deserve.
No lead will be enough however with the bullpen as it presently stands. Hoping for a miracle turnaround like Rodney in 2009 is asking a bit much but beggars cant be choosy when the cupboard is bare.
Besides Perry in a few seasons time, Ni currently looks the only reliever with the temperament and brains to close and like Howell for the Rays can pitch to all batters.
.
Can’t wait to see how it all pans out.

I know i live and breath tigers…….but why don’t ppl talk about how fernando obviously has a problem performing well without his back up against the wall? I mean, the angles signed him as the 8th inning guy!!!! LMAO LMAO LMAO LMAO

That was an old joke for Jason, the Higginson thing.
.
They had a thing on Hot Stove tonight comparing Jermaine Dye and Jack Cust. Since I was talking about picking up a hitter, which would anyone rather have if it came to that? Dye is older but might be a good presence, while Cust is young and hits lefthanded. Dye can still play the outfield while Cust looks to be a DH type. Both of them damaged the Tigers in the past. Or do neither interest anyone?
.
–Rich

2nd guessing the off-season? Well it’s not done yet. I loved CG as much as the next guy, also fond of EJ. But, I’m not so sure we aren’t OK to compete again for the weakest division in the AL. This CF kid looks like a younger, cheaper version of Curtis. I think we scored a lot of young arms. Our minors are stacked with young promising relievers. I remember when that AZ starter was right up there with Lincecom as the next dominant SP. Obviously it hasn’t quite panned out that way so far. But more K’s than IP last year isn’t all bad. He could still be very good and I’ll take him over any of the #3’s we had even EJ. This 2010 team is shaping up like 2006 when we were pitching dominant but just didn’t have quite enough offence. Then we didn’t have Cabrera who I think still can raise his game some.
I’M HOPEFUL AND OPTIMISTIC THIS YEAR. I just pray we don’t give up a lot to get some Vet closer retread.

Rich, Tigers have interest in Cust, but he’s talking with quite a few other teams. When I checked on that yesterday, he wasn’t close to a deal with anyone. One thing to note, though, is that Cust is wants to be a full-time player, and that’s all they’re talking about right now.

Boy Cust really??? Yes he hit 25 homers and hits from the left side, but I think that he struck out about 185 times. In my opinion we don’t need another strikeout artist, we have enough of those. Not real crazy about Dye either.
.
Jason earlier there was talk about Podsednik? Is there anything going on there? Seems to me we need an onbase guy and a lead off hitter. Otherwise who do you think might leadoff for the Tigers??
.

One favorable thing about Cust is he may be a younger (and smaller) version of Adam Dunn, and Dunn is a guy I’d like to have. Cust hits homers, strikes out a lot, and walks a lot. This all against RH pitching. I don’t see who would be interested in Cust as a fulltime player, so I can see why he’s not close to a deal. The Nationals seem to be the bottom of the barrel but they already have the real Dunn.
.
–Rich

The following are trademarks or service marks of Major League Baseball entities and may be used only with permission of Major League Baseball Properties, Inc. or the relevant Major League Baseball entity: Major League, Major League Baseball, MLB, the silhouetted batter logo, World Series, National League, American League, Division Series, League Championship Series, All-Star Game, and the names, nicknames, logos, uniform designs, color combinations, and slogans designating the Major League Baseball clubs and entities, and their respective mascots, events and exhibitions.